Archive for the ‘HOU Rockets’ Category

Okay, not really… both teams played well, but Deron took over late, and there’s no stopping him when he feels it. The game was close throughout, with both teams losing their starting center to foul trouble in the 4th.

How about AK and his assist of the night?
AK finished with 6 points, 4 assists & 3 rebounds in an off night.

Speaking of off nights, want to know who didn’t have one? That’s right… Booze was feeling it, finishing with 20 & 17 (!). He also had a team high +/- of +15.

Deron was amazing. CJ… not so much. He’s gone MIA as of late… coinciding with the return of Booze? He finished 1-6 for the game, with 2 points. His stats offensively since Booze’s return… the first 2 games, when Booze was playing minimal minutes, he was 4-10 (8 points… in 12 minutes!) and 6-10 (15 points). Since then though, he’s gone 2-6 (4 points), 1-5 (2 points) and 1-6 (2 points). Save for the 15 point game, his minutes are hovering near 20 right now (on the lower end), almost 4 minutes lower than his season average.

Booze played well, the bench didn’t, and the Jazz won. Korver only had 2 points, and Harding & ‘Sap each had 4. Luckily the team shot well (50%) and was perfect from the FT line (17-17). Speaking of the FT line (and therefore fouls), the Jazz were called for 11 more fouls and the Rockets shot 15 more FTs. And yet the Rockets fans were complaining. Quite simply, well… first, they should’ve made their FTs (24-32). And second, as sad as it is, in this day and age, the NBA allows flopping (and rewards for it)… so it’ll continue. There were flops on both sides (each center ended up fouling out because of them… depending who you ask). Also, it’s stupid when refs that can’t see the play (behind it all) blow the whistle. Leave it to the guys that can see the play!

Unrelated to the game, but why is the ‘pro-hop’ not an up-and-down or something like that? And speaking of that, you might as well toss out the rulebook, because the refs don’t follow it. Making it even easier for them to help the ‘superstars’… which is highly stupid. Quite simply, the call should be the same whether it’s Kobe or Flop. If it’s a charge on one, it’s a charge on the other. Reaching in? Check. Blocking foul? Check. Anything.

Contract year issues. I think Fesenko, Almond & The Koof (not in a contract year) should all be playing more. If not with the Jazz, then in the NBDL. Taking Flop off of the 12-man roster hurts the team in no way.

The Jazz “are going streaking”, having won 9 straight as they get ready to host the Nuggets (coming off of a win against the Blazers yesterday) tonight. FYI… if you watch the video, you see more of Will Ferrell than you’ve ever wanted to see.

Whiny Little Girl (not so little) obviously went off on the officiating. How dare they call a foul on him?!? That said, this ‘preferential treatment’ is just pathetic and stupid. Oh, and he’s over the back on almost every one of his boards… he’s lucky they aren’t calling that.

If my review isn’t long enough for you, The Dream Shake has you covered. Profanity included. If you want the profanity but not the length, The Dream Shake is there too. Seriously, it seems like they’re closet Jazz fans, given how much time they devote to “hating” the Jazz. Oh, and the sites not only have profanity, but also a lot of ‘Utah sucks’ (to state it nicely) and some anti-Mormon sentiment. Because obviously all Jazz players are Mormon. I’ve never seen how saying “F*** Utah” or “Utah sucks” or “How are your wives?” adds anything to a sports discussion, but eh… I guess that’s all they know. Sad, really… the NBA almost gives us all something to bond over (like hating the Kobes & Celtics and all), but some people would rather not. Eh. Anyhow, enough of that off-topic thing…

Speaking of the Rockets, the game’s “surprising explosion against the Jazz D” was Kyle Lowry. Last time Von Wafer, this time Lowry. What?

Houston, we have a problem.
…
Actually, we have more than 1, as the game showed.

Despite getting 20+ point performances from 3 players (Deron with 32, Brewer with 23 & ‘Sap with 20), the Jazz never really threatened, and the TMac & Crazy Pills less Rockets walked away with the home win. Of the many problems that popped up…

The Jazz had only the 3 aforementioned players in double-digits. The Rockets had 5.

The Jazz bench got 8 points total, from 4 players. Of the 4 Rockets bench-players to play, 2 of them had more than 8. Each.

Okur was 2-13 from the field. Ugh. And he only had 1 assist, meaning that he wasn’t passing it very often.

CJ was just 3-8 from the field.

Korver was 1-7. No Knees, who didn’t need to play considering that TMac & Crazy Pills were both out, was 1-4. Plus the Jazz played him at the 4 a bit, which is just stupid. Knight jacked up 3 jumpers, and missed them all. Lot of confidence for a guy that’s biggest negative was his inability to make the jumper.

Flop was the first guy off of the bench (Flop!), and he only played 5 minutes. Why not bring The Koof off first? And why not bring Fesenko along… he’s a better option than Flop most of the times anyways. Flop missed 1 shot and had 1 TO in his 5 minutes. The Koof, on the other hand, had 4 points (2-3 shooting), 2 boards & 1 assist in 13 minutes.

The Rockets were draining treys, going 11-24 from deep. That includes a 5-7 night from Rafer Alston (seriously!) and a 3-5 night from Von Wafer. Um… defense? Wafer lit CJ up early and often.

The Rockets shot 60% from the field in the 1st quarter, and 46% for the game. And that would’ve been much higher if Aaron Brooks & Shane Battier hadn’t gone 1-9 from the field (0-4 from long range). Each! That’s just weird, by the way.

Late, with the game over… the Jazz were still fouling. And Wafer went in for a dunk despite the game being over, SOB. And J-Slow didn’t play Almond, despite him being a Houston guy. Kinda like when J-Slow refused to play Shorty in Chicago, despite it being a blowout. No wonder some fans out there hate him… I know its all about winning (which he’s never fully done, by the way), but still, when the game is over (either way), why not let the fans see a hometown guy?

The team really missed AK. And it’s obvious where not having Booze hurts… the bench is absolutely pathetic right now.

It might be time to make a trade… either to get some help on the bench (because our guys aren’t cutting it), or to get a 2-guard with a jumper (shifting Brewer to the 3 and CJ to the bench). Because this isn’t working. And Booze won’t be back for a while… his return won’t mean sh!t if the Jazz keep playing like they are right now. Especially with the stretch they have coming up.

Update: Artest will play, but T-Mac won’t. In that case, make Artest player #2 down below, in place of T-Mac.

The ‘Texas two-step’ comes to an end (in Texas, no less), as the Jazz head on the road to face the Rockets just one night after beating Dallas in the Valley of Salt. The Jazz are coming off of that win, while the Rockets are coming off of a road loss in New Orleans. The Rockets enter at 19-11, the Jazz at 18-13. There is some recent history between the 2 teams (see the first round of the last 2 playoffs), but the teams will be a bit different this time… especially the Jazz, who will probably be without all 3 leading scorers & rebounders yet again. The Rockets aren’t exactly injury-free (Ron Artest is hurt and might miss the game), but compared to the Jazz, they’re healthy. Very healthy.

Three Key Players

Yao Ming: He’s one of the best centers in the league (if not the best). He’ll be going up against the terrifying duo of… The Koof & Fesenko. Oh man. Though there was some talk that Flop could be back… not that that makes anything better. If anything, his gameplanning skills will kill the Jazz, because Whiny Little Girl is a much better FT shooter than Shaq. WLG is averaging 20.1 ppg and 9.7 rpg. The Jazz are probably going to need to double him quite a bit tonight.

Tracy McGrady: He’s averaging 15.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg & 4.7 apg this season. He did go 2-11 last night though (11 points), proving that he can occasionally have a bad game. The Jazz need to hope for another bad game from him as well, maybe like in the playoffs, where he was jacking up ugly trey after ugly trey, and missing badly. If not that, a 2-11 night works just fine. Brewer, CJ, AK, Almond, No Knees… they could all see some time against him. If it’s all of them, hopefully it’s due to everyone playing well & therefore needing time, and not because the D is horrible.

Deron Williams: The injury still seems to be affecting him greatly… you can tell that whenever he starts towards the hoop. He’ll drive in, but instead of attacking strong, he settles for short jumpers (and misses quite a few of them). This is unfortunate. The Jazz need him to be healthy and draining his shots… an off-night is never good. And with all the leading scorers out, he’s going to need to step it up even more. Settling for treys isn’t going to work… we’ve seen that the last couple of games. Drive in. Draw the fouls if need be. Find the open guy (hopefully it’s no AK settling for a jumper). Oh, and please… please! Cut down on the turnovers.

The Dream Shake, where grungedave has enough hatred for the Jazz to make it seem that the Jazz did some very bad, unmentionable things to him in his childhood.

Notes

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